The Wind of the World
Chained is the Spring. The Night-wind boldBlows over the hard earth;Time is not more confused and cold,Nor keeps more wintry mirth.
Yet blow, and roll the world about--Blow, Time, blow, winter's Wind!Through chinks of time heaven peepeth out,And Spring the frost behind.
Words in this poem
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wind of the World is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, The Wind of the World, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-wind-of-the-world.html, id L22428.
Form and metre
The Wind of the World is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB boldA · earthB · coldA · mirthB
- 2 ABAB aboutA · windB · outA · behindB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Chained is the Spring. The Night-wind bold | 8 | ········ |
| Blows over the hard earth; | 6 | ······ |
| Time is not more confused and cold, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Nor keeps more wintry mirth. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Yet blow, and roll the world about-- | 8 | ········ |
| Blow, Time, blow, winter's Wind! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Through chinks of time heaven peepeth out, | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| And Spring the frost behind. | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.